Eating, Drinking, Sport and Kids Health

Helped facilitate a focus group on how local authorities can implement strategies to improve childrens health in Scotland at our Healthy Living conference at Peebles. Some key civil servants from the Scottish Executive were involved along with about 20 handpicked delegates from the event. Think it was a useful event although some delegates moved straight from the blue sky thinking to how things would impact operationally.

The concept is for local authorities to go beyond the obvious school meals and physical activity outlets and to look at what can be done in terms of licensing of premises, planning laws, the local environment, community safety and to merge all of these activities into a co-ordinated plan of action for authorities to follow.

APSE undertook some basic research on creating a baseline as to where authorities are in terms of strategies for children's health, identified some case studies and developed some early draft P.I.s which could be used for measuring progress.

This is something I have advocated as part of my role on the Scottish Executive's Health and Physical Activity Council, so I was only to glad the Association could help out. Hopefully the delegates from the focus group will continue to be utilised by the Scottish Executive as a reference group as ideas develop.